Teignbridge District Council has recently published a Custom and Self Build Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

The SPD, which was adopted on 19 July 2016, sets out the Council's objectives and expectations in delivering custom and self-build housing across the district. It will be used to inform planning decisions made by the Council when determining planning applications under the Teignbridge Local Plan (Policy WE7 on Custom Build Dwellings) which asks sites of more than 20 homes to provide at least five per cent of housing plots for sale to custom builders.

The SPD covers several important areas:

Delivery of serviced self build plots on large sites

The conditions under which developers can provide self build plots that alsosatisfy affordable housing policy (including the use of rural exception sites)

Requirements where plots are to be delivered off-site

Standard clauses to be included in Section 106 Agreements

Requirements for marketing strategies and the use of plot passports, and

The use of Design Codes and Local Development Orders.

Teignbridge is the first known council in the country to have adopted a SPD specifically for custom and self-build housing. It will therefore be of considerable interest to other councils as they take forward the new legislation in the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (as amended by the Housing and Planning Act 2016).